SO WHAT is left to be salvaged from the smoke and the rubble of the Football Association of Ireland's reputation? Perhaps after the appalling and unsightly shambles of the selection process, if Mick McCarthy is named this week as successor to Jack Charlton the national team will have gained a manager capable of lifting Irish football above the sightlines of its own dwarfish administrators.

The damage done by the shoneens and the gombeens will take quite a while to repair. Consolation lies in the thought that the national team should be serviceable again pretty soon.

McCarthy has already had to suffer slings and arrows, launched from predictable quarters, to the effect that he is the "bad journalists' " choice for the job. The bellowed abuse will only serve as reassurance to him that he is home again. Through 57 international appearances, during which he was never once turned over, he heard the same voices and the same abuse.

The abuse is unfair and unnecessary. Us bad journalists notwithstanding, McCarthy's reputation and achievements as a manager, allied to his experience and leadership on the field, would have made him a front runner even in a selection process not so widely discredited as the current exercise.

For starters, it is to his credit that almost alone of the serious suitors for the job, he has seen the in-laws he is going to have to deal with and live with and is still passionate about the possibilities for the core relationship. Most others haven't had the stomach for that.

And let's face it, it is important, given the failings and foibles of the Irish soccer administration and given the fickle nature of the phenomenon that has christened itself `the greatest fans in the world', that the new manager should have a passion for the Irish game. McCarthy has a link with the grassroots that is almost spiritual.

In this bad journalist's travels, from the Kerry leagues to the lnishowen peninsula, McCarthy's praises have been repeatedly sung by those who have come into contact with him, by those charged with nurturing soccer at grassroots level. McCarthy has always been available to Irish soccer, always interested in its development and growth, always keen to take his Millwall side to the most unlikely pastures to aid some local soccer team or league, always there for coaching courses and the launch of new leagues and schemes. Perhaps he isn't the choice of the spivs (anonymous and otherwise) who would kill the domestic game by bringing Wimbledon, lock, stock and barrel to Dublin, but his credentials among the grassroots of the game are intact and impeccable.

He hasn't done badly as a manager, either. Those who claim that four years away from international duty as a player isn't a sufficiently long period of quarantine for an international manager ignore both the current clamour for Bryan Rob son to be elevated to the English managership and McCarthy's own record in management.

Having been drafted in as a senior player and a level head in March 1990, during the rather dour reign of Bruce Rioch at Millwall, he remained popular with the local hordes as the team sunk in the spring of 1992 into the relegation mire. His honest performances and flair for leadership were rewarded when he was made caretaker-manager in March 1992.

Those who fear that he might be too close to the Irish players should examine his record. Rioch resigned after Millwall suffered a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of Portsmouth. The following week McCarthy dropped seven of the side, scraped a 1-0 win and set about dismantling the rudimentary style which Rioch had imposed on Millwall.

He abandoned the 4-4-2 system, beloved of both Rioch and Charlton, in favour of a more adventurous 4-3-3 formation. More then that, he showed a remarkable flair for evaluating players. Colin Cooper was purchased for a song as a full back, converted into a centre half, and sold within a year to Nottingham Forest for £1.8 million. Alex Rae was converted from a central midfielder to a winger and has become one of the most coveted players in the division.

Talents like Ben Thatcher and Andy Roberts were unearthed. McCarthy has been able to hold onto Thatcher. The exigencies of life at the debt-ridden New Den meant that Roberts, a £4 million sale to Crystal Palace, became yet another export. To that list must be added the names of Chris Armstrong, Mark Kennedy, Kenny Cunningham. Ian Bogie and Jon Goodman. McCarthy's eye for talent brought Irish under-21 international Dave Savage to the New Den where he has blossomed.

Mark Kennedy, a phenomenon as a free-scoring centre forward in the youth leagues, was wisely given a season or two out on the left wing while he muscled up and grew into senior football. He left for Liverpool as the game's most expensive teenager at £2.2 million.

Through it all, McCarthy has kept his side out of the relegation mire and in contention for the play-offs. They missed the play-offs by a place in his first full season, made the play-offs in his second, and were denied a place by a disastrous post-Christmas run last season. The constant selling of players had taken its toll. There is a statistic which McCarthy is proud of in the context of current circumstances he has often fielded entire Millwall teams that have cost the club nothing in terms of transfer fees. This year, as usual, they are there or thereabouts. He has picked up a pair of Russian internationals for the remainder of the season. It is quite a testimony to his powers of persuasion that he enticed such quality to the least fashionable corner of London football. The same persuasiveness has helped in the purchase of the immensely promising Brendan Markey, the former Bohemians striker who turned down a move to Newcastle last summer.

There have been exhilarating cup runs: McCarthy's teams have seen off some half a dozen Premiership sides in knock-out competitions in the past few years.

All the time, the commitment to playing good football has remained intact. McCarthy has tinkered with the diamond system he initially deployed, building in some tactical flexibility as Millwall's new style became known throughout the division.

He believes in teams passing the ball, playing their way through a game. In other respects, he differs from Jack Charlton, too. He is intensely loyal to his players, to the point where he has admitted to leaving a player on the field for a little longer than he might, rather than withdraw him while the crowd is on his back. At Millwall, his criticisms of performances are kept behind closed-doors.

The son-of-Jack tag is unfair and crude, a legacy of the uncomfortable position McCarthy endured during Charlton's victimisation of David O Leary.

McCarthy has a streak of decency running through him which would preclude another O'Leary incident ever happening. "I like to talk to players about everything that affects them," he told this paper once. "I've seen those that don't, and it's wrong."

These past few weeks he has endured the antics of Merrion Square and the media Lilliputians who can't get past the realm of caricature. He has come through more determined than ever to get on with the job. Perhaps, Merrion Square will pull another rabbit out of its hat at the last minute. Who knows?

This week, the FAI should be about the business of apologising to all those whose toes have been trodden on and making sure that McCarthy gets what he wants. A little persuasion to bring the coaching skills of his friend, Chris Hughton, with him wouldn't go amiss either. Passion and pragmatism should always have been qualities at the top of the job specification list and Mick McCarthy, a favourite son, should always have been around the top of the most wanted list.

He fits the vacant space as comfortably and as suitably as Brian Hamilton occupies the Northern Irish position. Some appointments just feel right.